REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 51 



SLeGIONAL PAPER No. 16 



attention paid to the selection of milch cows, and the food given is often deficient in 

 nutriment and in milk-producing qualities. 



* Low grades of butter are attributable to want of skill in its manufacture and 

 want of improved apparatus. In cheese making, the need of greater skill and want of 

 scieniific knowledge is also felt. In the cultivation of fruit a great want is experienced 

 in many sections of hardier varieties, and of varieties with improved keeping qualities. 

 There is also a deplorable want of knowledge regarding the insects and diseases 

 injurious to fruit trees.' 



This committee. also reported that in the replies they had received to a number of 

 questions submitted to many leading farmers in every part of the Dominion, a large 

 proportion advised the establishment of experimental farms, not only a central one, 

 but also branch farms in every province. The protection of farmers against the sale 

 of fraudttlent fertilizers was also urged. The committee recommended that the govern- 

 ment establish an experimental farm or farms where experiments might be carried on 

 in connection with all branches of agriculture and horticulture, and that the results of 

 the work conducted should be published from time to time and disseminated freely 

 amongst the farmers of the Dominion. 



No action was taken by the government on this matter until November, 1885, 

 when, on the accession of the Honourable, now Sir John Carling, to the position 

 of Minister of Agriculture for the Dominion, he instituted measures for the accumu- 

 lation of further information so that the fullest data might be available, and the 

 -experimental farms so much needed established on the most approved plans without 

 further delay. Particulars regarding experimental stations then in operation in 

 Europe and America were obtained and published, and during the session of parliament 

 for 1886, an Act was introduced and passed almost unanimously, authorizing the 

 government to establish a central experimental farm and four branch farms. The 

 principal or central farm was to be located at or near the capital, Ottawa, where it 

 was to serve the purposes of the two larger provinces, Ontario and Quebec The 

 branch farms were to be distributed as follows : — 



One for the Maritime provinces jointly, one for Manitoba, one for the North-west 

 Territories and one for British Columbia. 



The work which was to be undertaken at these several experimental farms was 

 thus set forth in the Act. 



(a.) Conduct researches and verify the experiments designed to test the relative 

 value, for all purposes, of different breeds of stock, and their adaptability to the 

 varying climatic or other conditions which prevail in the several provinces and in the 

 the North-west Territories ; 



(b.) Examine into scientific and economic questions involved in the production 

 of butter and cheese ; 



(c.) Test the merits, hardiness and adaptability of new or untried varieties of 

 wheat and other cereals, and of all field crops, grasses and forage plants, fruits, 

 vegetables, plants and trees, and disseminate among persons engaged in farming, 

 gardening or fruit-growing, upon such conditions as are prescribed by the Minister 

 of Agriculture, samples of such surplus products as are considered to be specially 

 worthy of introduction ; 



Cd.) Analyze fertilizers, whether natural or artificial, and conduct experiments 

 with such fei-tilizers, in order to test their comparative value as applied to crops of 

 different kinds ; 



(e.) Examine into the composition and digestibility of foods for domestic animals; 



(f.) Conduct experiments in the planting of trees for timber and shelter ; 



(g.) E: amine into the diseases to which cultivated plants and trees are subject, 

 and also into the ravages of destinictive insects and ascertain and test the most useful 

 preventatives and remedies to be used in each case ; 



16-4^ 



